Title: Made to be Broken – Heartland
Author: Jo. R
Rating: PG13
Pairing: Abby/Gibbs
Category: Mild angst, romance
Spoilers: 'Heartland'.
Summary: Some rules are made to be broken.

****

Stillwater was the kind of town she'd imagined could help produce a man like Leroy Jethro Gibbs. It had a wholesome feel to it, the kind of place a good man could grow up with an enviable set of morals. Quiet and quaint, everyone seemed to know everything there was to know about the other which was why walking through the town at night was strangely unsettling.

She didn't feel threatened but she felt the questioning looks and heard the muted whispers. Abby started to question the wisdom of leaving the home of Jackson Gibbs after dark but felt a familiar presence before she could change her mind and turn back.

"You should've told me you were going out." Gibbs fell into step beside her but was looking ahead when she glanced in his direction. "Jack was worried you'd get into trouble."

"What kind of trouble could I get into?" Abby asked quietly, feeling the heat of his hand next to hers as they walked side-by-side but neither made an effort to further the contact. "It seems like a nice, friendly town."

He shrugged instead of answering, letting her chose the direction as they reached a crossroad. "It is but you're a stranger. You could get lost."

"Or I could get hassled because of the way I look? The way I dress?" She gave him a sidelong look as they passed a noisy bar on the other side of the street. She'd seen rowdier places both in DC and in New Orleans where she'd grown up but the loud music and even louder voices seemed somehow unnerving in the otherwise still and silent town. She looked down at her outfit; short black skirt, matching black shirt, black leather collar with silver studs... She supposed Stillwater was quiet enough that even her current outfit – sedate, in her eyes – could be described as 'out there'. "Do you think there's something wrong with the way I'm dressed? I would've brought some more... conservative... clothes but I didn't have time to go home and pack. It was a spur of the moment thing, you know. Tony said he was going to come and I..."

Gibbs stopped, moving to stand in front of her so quickly she barely had time to blink – quickly enough that she almost walked into him, stopping just a split-second away. He looked down at her through blue eyes that studied her intently, stripping her of her defences and pinning her to the place where she stood. "Why did you come with him, Abby? You could've stayed back in DC..."

"Would you prefer it if I had?" Using a technique she'd learnt from him, Abby answered his question with one of her own, tilting her head to the side as she gazed up at him. "Am I embarrassing you, Gibbs? Don't you want me meeting your father...?"

His lips stopped her from making any further accusations. He pushed her against the wall of the closed store they were walking beside, his hands clasping her face with a gentleness that contradicted the hardness of the body he pressed against her. His teeth clashed with hers for a brief moment and he nibbled on her full bottom lip before kissing her fully.

The catcalls and wolf-whistles from the bar across the street had them pulling apart just as hands had begun to slip under clothes. Abby leaned against the wall heavily, keeping her eyes closed even when she felt him move away from her.

"Why are you here, Abby?" His voice was quiet but no less serious and she could feel his gaze on her face even without opening her eyes to look at him. "It's a simple question."

She shrugged her shoulders and opened her eyes, forcing herself to meet and hold his gaze as she answered his question as honestly as she could. "I missed you. I wanted to see you, make sure you were okay, but I'm here because I missed you. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Whether it was or wasn't, Gibbs didn't get the chance to tell her. His cell phone rang in his pocket, drawing a grimace from him and a partly disappointed, partly relieved sigh from Abby.

"Yeah. Gibbs." He held the phone to his ear for a few moments, his jaw clenching at whatever was being said. "We're not... Right." He hung up, his expression thunderous, and glanced towards the bar with a typically cold Gibbs stare on his face.

"Something wrong?" Following his gaze, Abby couldn't see a reason for the sudden change in his demeanour.

He glared at the bar for a few seconds more, at something or someone she couldn't see. "Nothing. Jack said supper's almost ready. We better head back before DiNozzo eats it all."

He made no attempt at touching her or even talking to her on the short walk back. She could feel the tension radiating from him, his shoulders squared as though prepared for battle. It wasn't until after supper, after they'd all retired for the night and she'd slipped downstairs to get a glass of water that she discovered the reason why.

*****

"She's young. Pretty. Smart, too." Jackson Gibbs listed Abby's positive attributes, hoping to get a reaction from his son but entirely unsurprised when he didn't. "Not what I was expecting you to go for, though. Certainly not outside Kevin's place in the middle of the day where anyone could've seen you."

Gibbs gave his father an annoyed look but said nothing, nursing the glass of bourbon in his hand instead. He felt like a teenager again, and was suddenly reminded why he'd been so keen to leave Stillwater in the first place. It felt a bit like living under a microscope, where everything he did – big or small – made it back to his father often before he himself did.

"I thought you had a little more discretion that that, Leroy." Jack shook his head with a sigh. "I understand the attraction but I think you need to be sure before you rush into anything with this girl. She's not like your other women. She might put on a tough front but I think she's got a vulnerable side she might not let anyone see."

"I've known her for ten years, Jack. I think I know her better than you do." Gibbs glanced up from his glass. "Don't presume to know what's going on between me and Abby. You have no idea."

"I know you were seen making a display of yourself in town by several good friends of mine. Neighbours who wanted to know if it was really my son they saw with his tongue down some young woman's throat." Jack's hand tightened around the bottle of beer he held. "I know we're not as close as we could be, son, and I may not know Abby as well as you do but I know you. I know you've been hurting for too long. I know she could be good for you and I'd hate to see you screw it up and throw it all away."

Gibbs inclined his head to show he was listening but otherwise didn't react to his father's words.

"All I'm saying is be careful. Don't get in too deep unless you're sure you know what you're doing." Jackson gave his son one last look before pushing himself up from his chair, leaving Gibbs to brood alone.

Torn between going to him and giving him space, Abby waited a few minutes before leaving the little alcove she'd ducked into, heading towards the kitchen to get the glass of water she'd come downstairs for.

The sound of the water running from the tap disguised the sound of footsteps behind her, though she knew from experience he could've snuck up on her anyway if he'd wanted. The arms that slid around her waist made her close her eyes and she only opened them when she felt herself being turned by gentle but insist hands on her hips.

Gibbs gazed down at her, blue eyes unreadable in the shadowed room. His fingers traced slow circles over her hipbones through the thin cotton of her pyjama pants and she lifted her face to his instinctively when he leaned down to brush her mouth with his own.

It was a gentle kiss, igniting a slow-burning heat in the pit of her stomach rather than the quick white-hot hunger she was used to with Gibbs. Abby laid her hands on his shoulders, curling her fingers a little to get a better grip on him, pressing herself against him willingly as he crowded her back against the sink.

The touch of his fingers against the bare skin of her stomach beneath her top jolted her back to the moment and she pulled away, leaning back to keep him from kissing her again.

"Not here," she murmured, her husky voice sounding rougher than normal. "We can't..." She bit her bottom lip and gazed up at him through her lashes. "Someone might hear..."

His expression suggested he didn't care if anyone heard or not but cleared after a moment, a sigh escaping him as his hands dropped back down to her waist.

"Tomorrow," Abby promised, leaning up to kiss him lingeringly before slipping out of his arms. "My place."

Gibbs poured himself a glass of cold water before heading upstairs to his own room.

*****

He didn't get much sleep that night, staring up at the familiar marks on the ceiling with his hands behind his head. His mind was a whirlwind, a commotion of jumbled thoughts and feelings. Being in Stillwater made him feel both closer to Shannon, and more aware than ever of her absence.

There was a part of him that would always love her, the part that had caused him to hold back in every relationship he'd had since. Even though his later marriages had ended in divorce, he'd loved each of his ex-wives in his own way albeit differently to how he'd loved Shannon. His relationships with Jen and Hollis had both meant something to him, the former especially, but he'd still kept his distance in some way out of loyalty to Shannon and the memory of all he'd had with her.

It was strange that being in Stillwater, being in the place where they'd met and fallen in love, made him realise that maybe it was time to stop doing that. He wasn't sure if it was the influence of making amends with his father or the effect of his developing relationship with Abby or both but he thought that he was finally ready to move on from his lost love and find happiness with his new love.

He realised now that it wasn't disloyal to Shannon to want to be with someone else, to want to love them and open up to them and let himself complete and be completed. He knew her enough to be confident that she loved him as much as he'd loved her, that she would want him to be happy and move on and not spend the rest of his life constrained by the painful shadows of the past.

With Abby, he'd found the light again, a warmth he'd tried to deny himself. He couldn't deny it anymore.

The thought of her lying in her own bed across the hall made his stomach flip over. His hands clenched and he resisted the urge to do one of two things – leave his room in search of her or hold her image at the forefront of his mind as he satisfied the longing that thinking of her created inside him.

He had to convince her it was more than a physical need, that she was more than just a replacement for what he'd lost.

It'd take time but he was determined. He wasn't going to let her slip away.

*****

End